I hope to be home soon, says Kiwi hostage

Friends of Harmeet Singh Sooden at a vigil for him in Aotea Square, Auckland, last night. Picture / Dean Purcell

The Auckland University student held hostage in Iraq appears to be getting favoured treatment from his captors and has been heard on video saying he hopes to be released soon.

Harmeet Singh Sooden is shown eating and drinking and thanking his captors for their treatment, saying: "We hope to be out of here soon."

The footage reveals starkly differing treatment of the American and British members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams captured in Baghdad 10 days ago.

Posted with sound on the internet yesterday, the video shows the 32-year-old Auckland student seated next to fellow Canadian citizen James Loney, 41, both dressed in civilian clothes and eating grapes and biscuits. They appear pale and serious, but relatively relaxed.

In contrast, retired British professor Norman Kember, 74, and American Tom Fox, 54, are standing chained together, grim-faced, in long-sleeved overalls.

Mr Sooden's brother-in-law, Mark Brewer, said last night it was good to hear Mr Sooden's voice in the video.

"From the family perspective it is fantastic to see he's been treated well in his own words, consuming food ... wearing the clothes he was taken in and not shackled."

Mr Brewer said the family was grateful their brother was being treated well but also prayed that the treatment of Mr Kember and Mr Fox improved quickly.

A group calling itself the Brigade of the Swords of Righteousness is holding the four peace workers, who are being threatened with death unless Iraqi prisoners held in Iraq and the United States are freed by Thursday.

While Mr Sooden and Mr Loney talk about how they are personally, Mr Kember and Mr Fox speak about British and US involvement in Iraq.

Mr Sooden says: "Thank you very much, we are being treated well and we hope to be out of here soon ... We are all being treated well, we are sleeping okay, um, and, um, we'd like to thank the people holding us for that and hopefully we will be home soon."

Mr Loney: "Um, we are being treated well, we are both well, all of us are well."

Mr Kember: "I ask Mr Blair to take British troops out of Iraq and leave the Iraqi people to come to their own decisions on their government."

Mr Fox: "As a representative of Christian Peacemaker Teams we feel that continued American and British occupation is not in the best interest of the Iraqi people."

The camera slowly pans up and down the two men's bodies, concentrating on their handcuffs and chains around their feet.

The Arabic satellite television network al-Jazeera reported that the kidnappings were the direct result of the occupation and that the captors repeatedly threatened to kill the men unless demands for the release of Iraqi prisoners were met this week.

The network is still waiting for a videotape showing Mr Sooden's mother Manjeet pleading for the hostages release. A producer said last night that if they received the tape, they would broadcast it.

The men were accused of being spies posing as peace activists.

Terrorism analyst Aldo Borgu, of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said he believed Westerners from the US, Britain and Australia were at greater risk because of their countries' involvement in Iraq, although all Westerners were potential targets.

Mr Borgu said there was no way of predicting what could happen, given that past executions had not necessarily followed lines of nationality.